Polysiloxanes are used in the textile processing industry as finishing agents for improving various properties of the textile, such as smoothness and softness. Typically, the polysiloxanes are employed in the form of oil-in-water emulsions, prepared by emulsification of a polysiloxane using a surfactant as an emulsifying agent.
In addition to functioning as an emulsifying agent, it is desirable for the surfactant to impart other useful properties to the emulsion, such as rapid wetting and penetration of the textile. In addition, low foam is also important in order to avoid emulsion breakage and undesirable accumulation of polysiloxane deposits on the textile. A common problem in the industry, however, is that emulsifying agents often cannot meet all these attributes simultaneously. The industry, therefore, attempts to address this shortcoming in various ways, including by increasing the concentration of the emulsifying agent, using a co-solvent or using other types of non-silicone softeners.
These alternative approaches exhibit a number of their own disadvantages, which include increased cost as well as degradation of performance. The alternative approaches, therefore, are often inadequate for meeting the needs of the industry. New emulsifying agents that can serve multiple useful roles in textile processing would be a significant advance for the industry.